lead
The miners lead lead carts up to the surface every day.
The sentence depicts miners guiding ore-laden carts up from underground workings to the surface for processing.
Meanings
to guide, conduct, or move at the head of a group
- She will lead the team to victory.
- The trail will lead you to the summit.
the heavy gray metallic element (Pb), atomic number 82
- The pipes were once made of lead.
- Lead-acid batteries power most cars.
Word origin
The verb sense /liːd/ comes from Old English lædan, meaning 'to cause to go' or 'to guide,' from Proto-Germanic *laidijaną. The noun sense /lɛd/ comes from Old English lēad, the metal, from Proto-Germanic *laudaz, with cognates including German Blei and Dutch lood.
Fun fact
The two senses come from completely separate Old English roots that just happen to share the same modern spelling. They've been distinct words for over a millennium — a true linguistic coincidence rather than a single word that evolved two pronunciations.